The fire in the Whispering Woods had been extinguished through the efforts of the Knights of Favonius, members of the Adventurers' Guild, and some public-spirited citizens of Mondstadt City.
About a quarter of the Whispering Woods had been affected by the incident, and the losses were considerable.
Kaeya was still in the Whispering Woods, directing the Knights of Favonius in the cleanup, such as clearing firebreaks and putting out lingering embers to prevent the fire from reigniting.
None of that had much to do with Ellin anymore, though. After seeing Jean and Cyrus off, she returned to her room.
It had been two days since she arrived in this world. She had already grown used to the room's pink decor and had even become rather fond of it. Of course, she would never admit that it was her inner girly side acting up.
"This isn't girly pink. It's macho pink," Ellin declared.
Lying on her big pink bed, Ellin began to recall the battle in the Whispering Woods.
It had been her first battle since coming to Teyvat. It had taught her a great deal and given her a deeper understanding of this world.
This was a real world, and she absolutely could not view it through the lens of a game.
Monsters that were easy to kill in the game could take your life at any moment here.
This wasn't a game. Eating a fried egg wouldn't bring you back to life, and eating a few servings of Sweet Madame wouldn't heal your injuries.
In the game, Blazing Whopperflowers could burn up a few patches of grass at most. Here, however, they could burn down an entire forest and cause incalculable losses!
Here, she had to be cautious no matter what enemy she faced, or she could lose her life at any moment.
Besides that, the battle had also made Ellin realize that she was far too slow at channeling elemental energy!
Anyone who wanted to channel elemental energy had to do so through a Vision first, but a Vision was merely a tool for channeling that energy.
How much elemental energy someone could channel, how quickly they could channel it, and how they used it all varied from person to person.
For instance, both Yoimiya and Diluc had Pyro Visions. Yoimiya could infuse her arrows with Pyro to attack, while Diluc could keep his claymore infused with Pyro for extended periods as he slashed at his enemies. He could even gather a vast amount of Pyro into a giant flaming bird to launch an attack.
The reasons for such a difference lay in their individual physiques, their development of elemental abilities, and the speed at which they could channel elemental energy.
Yoimiya was a cute girl who preferred having fun and wasn't particularly interested in combat. It was only natural that she couldn't match the righteous Diluc in developing her elemental abilities. (To be fair, though, Yoimiya was much stronger in the game-the best at aerial combat.)
The battle in the Whispering Woods had made Ellin keenly aware of her shortcomings in using elemental energy.
In particular, she was far too slow at channeling it.
During the battle with the Whopperflowers, she had repeatedly tried to use Ganyu's ultimate, Celestial Shower, but that skill required gathering a large amount of Cryo in an instant to form an ice spirit pearl that could banish evil.
Ellin couldn't channel Cryo quickly enough to gather the amount needed to form an ice spirit pearl in an instant. Thus, although she had tried to use Celestial Shower several times during the battle, every attempt had ended in failure.
Still, Ellin wasn't upset. After all, it had been her first battle and her first time using a Vision to draw upon elemental energy. Some awkwardness was inevitable.
"I'll have to train hard from now on!"
Ellin smiled. The battle had been dangerous, but she had gained a great deal from it. It had shown her weaknesses, and as long as she worked hard to overcome them, she would surely grow stronger!
She decided that, starting tomorrow, she would practice channeling elemental energy more often to improve her speed.
The faster she could channel elemental energy, the stronger she would be.
Take the charged attack of Trail of the Qilin, Frostflake Arrow, for example. It required gathering a large amount of Cryo energy onto an arrow.
The faster she could channel that energy, the faster she could charge a Frostflake Arrow.
"Maybe one day I'll be able to channel elemental energy as fast as Zhongli in his prime and casually hurl enormous ice spears!"
Lying on her big bed, Ellin indulged in silly flights of fancy.
"Oh, wait!"
Something suddenly occurred to Ellin. She rolled over and opened the system interface.
She vaguely remembered that when she obtained the system, it had copied over the items in her game inventory. However, at the time, she had still been too stunned by becoming a girl to process anything. Then she had spent time with Fischl afterward, causing her to forget about it entirely.
Now that she remembered, Ellin immediately opened the system inventory. What she saw made her expression shift slightly.
The system hadn't copied over every item in her game inventory. At present, the inventory had only three options: weapons, artifacts, and the Serenitea Pot.
The system inventory was a little like the spatial rings in fantasy novels. It contained a vast space, with weapons and artifacts stored separately under two different options.
When she opened the Weapon Inventory, the weapons that appeared were indeed ones Ellin had previously pulled in the game, but only four slots were currently unlocked.
The weapons stored in those four slots were Amos' Bow, The Unforged, The Flute, and The Black Sword.
The remaining slots were all locked, and she couldn't even tell what weapons were inside.
Ellin then opened the artifacts tab. It had even fewer unlocked slots than the Weapon Inventory—only two.
Yet the two unlocked artifacts made it impossible for Ellin to look away.
The first artifact was an attack sands from the Wanderer's Troupe set. Ellin remembered that she had equipped it on Yanfei.
After opening its details, Ellin discovered that the artifacts in her inventory differed from those in the game.
The artifacts in the inventory had only three attributes: set, main stat, and level.
For instance, the attack sands before her had no substats at all, only a main stat.
Its main stat was attack, which meant that using this artifact would increase her strength. How much strength it added depended on the artifact's level.
For example, the attack added by a level 1 attack artifact would certainly be lower than that of a level 10 attack artifact.
Next, Ellin opened the second artifact. It was a level 20 sands from the Anemo set, with energy recharge as its main stat.
"Energy recharge? What does this thing do?" Ellin frowned.
"Wait!"
Something suddenly occurred to Ellin!
"In the game, how quickly you can use your ultimate depends on how much energy recharge you have. And you need to accumulate enough elemental energy before you can use an ultimate!"
"So, does that mean energy recharge can let me channel elemental energy faster?"
Before you continue